


Something Else

by FireworkArcanist, LadyLampblack, Liliflower137, phantomthief_fee



Series: Eternal Stream AU [2]
Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Major character death - Freeform, bonus chapters!!!, its temporary tho, specifically from benrey and forzen's perspectives, spoilers for chapter 22 of something new so uhhh go read that first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireworkArcanist/pseuds/FireworkArcanist, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLampblack/pseuds/LadyLampblack, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliflower137/pseuds/Liliflower137, https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: There's always another perspective. Why don't we take a break for a while and take a look atSomething Else(Bonus Chapters for Something New! If you haven't read that fic of ours, these aren't going to make any sense. Go... go read it first.)
Relationships: Benrey/Player OC
Series: Eternal Stream AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863709
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49
Collections: Eternal Stream HLVRAI AU





	1. twisted fucking cycle path (Forzen)

Forzen tapped his fingers on his leg impatiently. He’d gotten tired of pacing so he’d sat down. Now he was getting tired of sitting down. How much longer?! He’d been waiting for hours!!  
  
It had in fact, been a little under 10 minutes, not that Forzen knew that or even cared. What he did know as that he wanted the wait to be over _now._   
  
He could just go after them, meet them in the middle. But this room was just so perfect for their confrontation... It would be such a waste to leave, he wanted to put on a good show! Really make his point!   
  
...   
  
“ARGH HOW MUCH LONGER?!!” Forzen started to pull on his hair, almost not noticing the bubbles rising from the grate across the room.

Forzen wasn’t much good with patience. Given his emotional state was that of a child, it was only natural that he struggled with delayed gratification. That was how chatbots worked after all. They started with nothing, and slowly learned to speak from being spoken to.  
  
Existing in some sort of physical space, with other people, and experiencing emotions, that was all new to him. He had no context, no prior knowledge, so he had to learn it all.   
  
Which is why he was here, waiting to meet his old friend and his companions, to see if his little plan had worked.   
  
It was simple really, Chester had hurt him, so all he had to do to make Chester come back, was hurt him in return.   
  
Then Chester would understand, Chester would know what he felt, and come back and love him again. 

In Forzen’s mind, this rationale made perfect sense. He had no other frame of reference for his feelings or experiences, so how could he have known how twisted his thinking was?

His heart swelled when he saw Chester’s head emerge from the grate. He didn’t look like Chester, not exactly, but this was still his friend.   
  
But still, his impatience won out over his joy. 

“What took you so loooong?” He whined. “Do you have any idea how fucking _boring_ this place is when there's no one around?" He stood up and stretched. “’ve been waiting here for hooours.” he continued. He opened his eyes and looked down at his creator, tilting his head. Why did he look so... scared? Was scared the right word? 

“You don’t look happy to see me? Come on, didn’t you miss your best friend?” He crossed the room, leaning down to look at Chester’s face, that wonderful friendly face that smiled at him for all those years. “I missed you.”

Unfortunately, Chester didn’t look all that happy to see him. After staring at Forzen for a moment, he screamed and tried to duck under the water again. Forzen couldn’t let him get away. Not when they were only just seeing each other again. He reached out and grabbed Chester by his arm, dragging him up and out of the water. 

“Aw come on, don’t you want to play with me?” Forzen asked, smiling in a way that he hoped would reassure Chester. “Like old times? You can’t leave yet!”

  
Chester screamed, which made Forzen frown. That was a rude response. Why wasn’t he _saying_ anything?

“Come on, bro, say something,” Forzen said, shaking Chester in an attempt to coax some sort of response out of him. “Don’t leave me hanging like this, _say something!_ ” 

But Chester still said nothing. Frozen was getting frustrated. 

“SAY SOMETHING!” He repeated, continuing to shake Chester in order to get _some_ sort of answer out of him.   
  
“It hurts...” Chester mumbled. “Please... Put... Put me down...”   
  
He couldn’t do that! Chester might run off! They were finally together again. He had to keep Chester with him.

“And why should I?” He asked. “If I do you’ll just leave me again.”   
  
He paused, studying Chester’s expression. He looked... in pain? Was that pain? It looked like he did when he stabbed him... He was pretty sure he’d already hurt Chester enough.   
  
“Fiiiine...” he agreed, letting Chester fall to the floor. “But only because you said please.”   
  
That stupid suit was talking again, annoying. It sounded like Forzen did when he got too angry and started to glitch, must be something wrong with it.   
  


“Hey! Leave him alo̴n̷e!”

  
Forzen’s attention was suddenly drawn away by another loud annoying noise. He looked over at the water and saw something blue.   
  
Oh, it was the other player wasn’t it? He was leaning very heavily on one of Forzen’s _replacements_. 

His mind went blank momentarily with anger. Chester didn’t need them. They’d been more than happy to sell him out to Forzen. That was proof enough that they weren’t as good as Forzen. And that player...He was just annoying. A nuisance. He needed to be disposed of so that Chester wouldn’t get distracted again.  
  
He picked Chester back up again. He had to keep him away from th ose fakes. They didn’t understand Chester. He was better off with Forzen.   
  
“What are _you_ going to do about it?” He taunted the other player. “You really think you can stop me?”

He waved Chester around a bit, smirking. He had Chester and they didn’t, so he was winning. Chester was _his_ and they couldn’t have him.   
  
The guard tried to leap for him, but fell flat on his face. Forzen held back a laugh. It looked like what Darnold did worked. His boot was partially clipped into the floor. The other AI was saying something but Forzen ignored him.   
  
“What’s wrong?” He laughed. “Having trouble with your code?”   
  
The player glared up at him, and started screaming. A wave of colored bubbles coming out and hitting the wall behind the chatbot. What the fuck was that suppposed to do?   
  
“That’s a cute trick you’ve got there. Was that supposed to do something?” Forzen asked.

“Di-Did you do this to him? Are _yo-you_ responsible for his glitching?” The other AI demanded. Which one was this? Darnold told him their names at one point... It started with a t or something... Timmothy? Tamika? No no it was Tommy, that was it. Wasn’t that the one the little potions master had a soft spot for?

Tommy wasn't any better than the rest of them. He was still a _replacement._ So… maybe finding out that Darnold was helping him would hurt, and that was good, because they had taken Chester and deserved to hurt. “Nah, Darnold did that for me. He’s a cool guy, almost can’t believe he’s one of you _cheap stand-ins_ .” He lifted up Chester to look him in the eyes. “You made uhhhhh real big mistake there, didn’t ya? Leaving him behind.”   
  
He looked up at Tommy again, waiting to see the betrayal in his eyes, and saw... no change.   
  
Huh?   
  
Forzen had forgotten that Tommy already _knew_ Darnold was working with him. He’d been there when Chester lost his arm.

“I didn’t...didn’t mean to,” Chester whimpered. “I didn’t...didn’t wanna hurt anyone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” 

It looked like Chester was understanding he’d messed up. That was good. But he didn’t grasp everything he’d put Forzen through. He needed to _know_. 

“Leave him alone!” 

  
Forzen had to stifle a groan. That other player was _still_ kicking. Why wouldn’t he just give up already? Forzen had won! Whatever. He’d just ignore him.

“Didn’t wanna hurt anyone, huh?” He asked, focusing on Chester. “Like how you hurt _me_?”

Chester had to understand. He had to understand how much Forzen had suffered. 

“I didn’t- didn’t-” 

“Didn’t _what_ , huh?” Forzen shook Chester again, frustrated by the lack of a proper response. Why was Chester having so much _trouble_ responding?

“I'm sorry, just Pl- Please... Don’t hurt them,” Chester finally said. “Do...Do whatever you want to me, just...Please don’t hurt them.”

Forzen’s anger flared. 

_Why?_

Why did Chester keep worrying about these wastes of space? They’d just been placeholders! Forzen was the important one here!

“Why the fuck are you worrying about _them_?! They don’t matter!” He yelled, his grip on Chester’s arm instinctively tightening. 

“I’m sorry!” Chester screamed. “Don’t hurt them!”   
  
Forzen growled. Why wasn’t it sinking in yet? The others didn’t matter! He grabbed Chester’s other arm to get a better grip on the struggling player, then started shaking him up and down like a soda can.   
  
“ **STOP CARING ABOUT THEM!!** ”   
  
“Y-You can’t ju-just expect him to stop caring,” The other AI piped up. T... oh goddamn it what was his name again? “It’s no-not that easy.”

  
“I didn’t ask you!” Forzen snapped. 

He gave the other AI a death glare. Forzen _hated_ them, he hated them _so much,_ and it wasn’t _fair_ ! Chester was his friend first and Chester had _left him_ for them and it wasn’t fair.   
  
“Baby doesn’t know how feelings work,” the other player slurred with a smug smirk. “Fuckin’...Fuckin’ loser. Doesn’t even get feelings.”   
  


_It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair-_ Frozen’s grip tightened ever more on Chester’s arm, vise-like, but honestly? He barely noticed it. He was so angry it _hurt,_ fire and consuming rage in the shape of static, like he was falling apart and all he could think was that he hated them and _it wasn’t fair_ , until-   
  
There was the horrible crack of breaking metal and Chester _screamed,_ the sound pulling Forzen out of his looping spiral to hell. He had broken Chester’s suit, and it was stabbing him. Huh. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t trying to stab Chester, he was trying to have a conversation with him.   
  


Chester couldn’t talk if he was screaming and being stabbed, so Forzen changes his grip, grabbing Chester by his ponytail. That probably wouldn’t hurt too much, right? Then they could continue talking. “See? This is why we can’t have nice things. You threw the nice things out and grabbed trash instead.” 

Chester wheezed and another one of those weird bubbles came out, splattering almost immediately. Forzen still didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. Maybe it was just a player thing.  
  


There was the loud crack of a gunshot and _pain_ , and Forzen dropped Chester like a hot coal, backing away from him in favor of staring at the hole in his hand and rotating it. So _that_ was what getting shot felt like. That was something new. Frozen chalked this one up on the list of new things he didn’t like, but he didn’t have to not like it for long- the hole closed before his eyes, and he looked over and saw-   
  
Them.   
  
The other player and his _replacement_ were by Chester. They were going to steal him again, and Forzen had _just_ gotten him back. Under no circumstances was he going to let them- Chester was _his_ friend, not theirs.   
  
Forzen stomped back over to Chester. He wouldn’t let them take Chester again. **“STAY AWAY FROM HIM!! HE BELONGS TO** **_ME_ ** **!”**

The other player lunged for him, and yelled something about Chester not being a toy, which was dumb- of course Chester wasn’t a toy, he was a human- but Forzen slapped him away. When he hit the ground, he made a sound like the headcrab that Forzen had tossed against the wall earlier, which was interesting. He hadn’t known humans could _make_ that sound. He also started making an annoying noise, which was pretty weird. 

“He’s mine!” Forzen repeated, stamping his foot. “He doesn’t need _any_ of you! He just needs **me** !”   
  
Forzen turned to go for Tommy, but stopped when he saw Chester reach out for the other player. Chester didn’t _need_ them. Why hadn’t he realized that yet? What would make him _learn?_   
  
Forzen stomped on Chester’s hand with his boot, and directs his attention back to Tommy. They could talk about that _after_ he took care of his replacement. 

“You-You’re hurting him!” Tommy yelled, pointing his gun at Forzen. 

“He needs to understand!” Forzen shot back, lunging for Tommy. “This’ll _make_ him understand!”

None of them got it. None of them understood. He had to do this. This was the only way to get Chester to see his point of view.

Tommy dodged to the side, evading Forzen, and firing a volley of shots in return. “Hurting Mr-Mr. Freeman won’t make him like you! And neither will hurting us or Mr. Benrey! That’s not how it w-works!” 

Tommy’s shots hit their mark, but the wounds he inflicts close up within seconds, and Forzen kept trying to get in close- grab him, punch him, or maybe toss him into the wall like he did the other player. “What do _you_ know? You’re just some cheap replacement! You don’t know Chester like I do! I’ve been his friend for _years!_ ”

Tommy stared at him, his expression unreadable. Forzen didn’t like it. He didn’t know what this feeling was, but he didn’t like it one bit. He wasn’t doing anything wrong!

“Pe-People change,” Tommy said, continuing to fire off shot after shot as calm as you please as he deftly avoided Forzen’s blows- a dance not unlike that of a matador and a charging bull. “And I th-think Mr. Freeman’s chan-changed a lot. But you haven’t.”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!” 

He didn’t get to judge him like this! This fake didn’t know what he’d been through! Didn’t know what it was like to get left behind!

Tommy’s next few rounds were aimed for Forzen’s head. “You know, Mr.- Mr. Forzen, I think… If you keep going like this you... wont... like it very much! You’re- you’re not gonna get what you want.” 

Easy for _him_ to say. Tommy already _had_ Chester. He hadn’t been left to _rot_ for nine years in some folder buried under years of files in a computer. _He_ hadn’t woken up one day and realized that he was alive, and had to deal with pain and _feelings_ and bodies that laid on the floor and made annoying noises after you hit them. 

**“SHUT!** **_UP!”_ ** Forzen felt his edges fuzz again, and lunged for Tommy again, moving at a speed which would have surprised even him, if his thoughts were something more coherent than an uncontrollable roar of fury, and-   
  
He _hit_ , making contact with Tommy’s skull and sending the other AI flying across the room. “Just. Shut up.”   
  
The scientist hit the ground hard, and stopped moving. Good. That meant he was dead, right? So now Forzen could _finally_ continue his conversation with Chester. No more interruptions. That horrible screeching grew louder and put an end to that thought.   
  
Fine, he’d deal with that first. 

Forzen made his way back over to Chester and the other player- he was the source of that annoying sound. That was rude of him, didn’t he know that Forzen was trying to talk? Really, he didn’t _mind_ the guy- he wasn’t one of his _replacements_ , he was a human, and he guessed it was okay for Chester to have human friends, but Benrey kept getting in his way. 

Forzen nudged the guy with his boot. “Shut up. I wanna talk to Chester, and I can’t do that if you keep making that noise.”

The human didn’t respond, continuing to make that awful sound while his body fuzzed like Forzen’s did when he got too mad. 

  
“ Your loss.” If the human didn’t want to shut up, Forzen knew how to make him. He picked the man up and snapped his neck, the sound instantly going away. Much better. “Now. Where were we?” He turned back to face Chester with the friendliest smile he could muster, and picked him back up again so they could talk . The smile faded when Chester didn’t say anything for several seconds, just- _glaring_ at him. He had never seen Chester look so _angry_ before.   
  
And then Chester _exploded_ in rage. “ How-how about… how about you take that fucking homemade body of yours and **_GO FUCK YOURSELF!_ **” Forzen flinched at the tone. Why did Chester sound so upset? He just wanted to get the two of them alone so they could talk! What had he done wrong?

Chester continued to yell at him, rage and pain dripping off every word, but Forzen had a hard time focusing on them, some of the words fuzzing into static. 

He didn’t... He didn’t understand. He didn’t do anything wrong! Why was Chester so angry? Weren’t they friends? He opened his mouth to say something, but Chester didn’t wait for him to finish talking.   
  
Instead, Chester said something that made the world stop spinning for a second- “I _hate_ you.” 

Chester hated him? Chester _hated_ him? 

Why? 

What had he done wrong? 

He just wanted Chester to understand, and things could go back to the way they used to be. The words fuzzed to static again, but he managed to catch Chester saying something about the people he loved.   
  
His replacements? Was that what this was about? 

“But...But they’re just replacements! I’m your best friend!” 

Chester didn’t _need_ them. He was here. Why couldn’t Chester understand that? He just wanted things to go back to normal, but Chester didn’t stop yelling.

  
“These guys, they’re just as fucking real as I am. And I’m not just going to let anyone rip them away from me! I built them, they’re my goddamn _family!_ ”  
  
“ ** _I_** was your family! You built **_ME_**!”

“And I didn’t mean to leave you behind! Stuff happened! What do you think doing this to me will _do?!”_

Forzen froze, and stared at Chester. Did… Chester really not get it? Would it help if he explained? It was obvious, but if Chester didn’t get it, he guessed he could explain. “I hurt. So... If I make you hurt, you’ll understand. And you won’t leave, and things can go back to normal.”  
  
Chester stared at him for a moment, and Forzen had just long enough to hope that he _finally got it,_ before the man exploded again. “BACK TO NORMAL?!! YOU KILLED ME! YOU KILLED BENREY!!!”

“And you left me alone!” They were the same, weren’t they? All those things hurt, so what was the difference? Why did it _matter?_ But Chester was so angry… Chester had said he _hated_ him.   
  
Chester yelled something about the hurts not being the same, but that didn’t make sense. They were, they _had_ to be, and he said that but Chester just- he wouldn’t stop yelling. Forzen could barely hear him with the static fuzz. If he was human, he might have cried.   
  
“You left me alone. I missed you.” He just wanted Chester to be his friend again… he just wanted to go back to the way things were and see Chester smile at him again instead of looking at him with hatred and fear.   
  
Chester said something again, but Forzen didn’t hear it, curling into himself defensively. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

And Chester went utterly silent and still for a few seconds, staring at nothing with dull eyes. Forzen didn’t like it. He liked it even less than he liked the yelling that Chester had been doing seconds before.   
  
And then-   
  
“...I give up. Fine. Whatever. You win. I don’t care anymore. Do whatever you want.”   
  
“... Wait. Seriously?” That should have felt good, right? Winning? That was what he had wanted Chester to say, but the way it was said felt. Wrong. Awful. He hated it. He had wanted this, but he didn’t want- _this._ This was all wrong. This was not how it was supposed to go. 

Chester just stared blankly, not responding, even when Forzen tried shaking him again. Did... Did he break him? Did Chester crash? No, humans don't do that... Right?   
  
A pit of worry formed in Forzen’s gut, only to be interrupted by _pain._ Specifically, blinding, burning pain in the head area, and a yell from Tommy. _Tommy._   
  
Forzen let go of Chester, and lunged towards Tommy, but the man stepped back into the grate that he, the other player, and Chester had come from, sinking into the water. He wouldn’t get away that easily, though- Forzen reached into the water to try and grab him. “I was talking!”

His efforts were interrupted, however, by a _sound._ A sound which was followed by the room filling with literal hundreds of- men? They _looked_ like one of his replacements, but there were so many of them. It was too much to process. It was definitely worse than that horrible noise the other player had been making. 

Then the strange copies opened their mouths and as one spoke in a cacophonous voice,

“ **_Hello, Gordon!_ **”

They attacked him as a group before he even had time to process them all. They weren’t particularly durable, but for every one he killed, there were four more that popped up behind them. It was _annoying,_ and it hurt, and he hated it. Why were these weird copies throwing themselves at him to die, anyway? Couldn’t they see how easy it was for him to kill them?   
  
Slowly, he removed more and more of them, until only one remained. Just- standing there. 

It smiled at him. “I hope you realize that with every clone you kill, I grow stronger.”

“And you just killed three hundred clones.”

What the fuck did _that_ mean? The rest of them were nothing- this guy wouldn’t be any different. “I’m not scared of you!” Forzen yelled. “You’re _nothing_ compared to me!”

The man laughed, which was weird, then ripped off his sleeves, which was weirder. And then- with a cry of “Falcon PUNCH!” that Forzen would have thought was cool if it was coming from anyone else, and that he kind of still did- the man launched himself towards Forzen.   
  
And then, for the first time since he had woken up, Forzen felt nothing. 

  
  


...  
  


  
And then, he was back. He found himself standing in Darnold’s lab, as if nothing had happened. He looked down at his mismatched hands and the rest of his body. All still there, with no damage or scars from the fight he’d just been in.   
  
Was that death? Was that what dying felt like?   
  
Forzen decided to add that to the list as well. Emotions, being interrupted, being alone, being shot, and now dying. 


	2. desperation is a funny thing (Benrey)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A view from Benrey's perspective.

Benrey felt like shit. That whole code thing had sucked big time and he still didn’t feel good. He felt like he might throw up, but he was scared that if he did it’d have that awful checkered pattern. That had been  _ enough _ to deal with.  _ More _ than enough.

He hated how weak he currently was as well. He could barely move without Tommy’s help, which was driving him crazy. What if they ran into Forzen? He wouldn’t be able to protect Chester like this. He didn’t want to leave Chester unprotected. Not when Forzen had already literally ripped off Chester’s arm. Sure, Tommy could probably protect Chester, but he was also busy making sure Benrey didn’t fall on his face.

It sucked and he hated it. 

He just hoped they’d be able to make it to somewhere safe without any trouble. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have started hoping that. He should’ve known by now that if he wanted something to happen, the opposite was always going to fucking happen.

He knew things had gone bad when he heard  the sound of  screaming  through the water, muffled as it was . Immediately, he tried to swim toward the sound,  panic turning his veins to ice . 

_ No, no, no, no, Chester- _   
  
Benrey would have sworn, had he not been underwater. As it was, he frantically struggled through the water, movements still sluggish and wrong from whatever had ri̡p̴p̧e̡d hi̡m̧ ͝a͜part, until Tommy grabbed him and dragged him through the water towards where Chester had gone.    
  


Tommy was a blessing, even though he _ hated  _ that he needed him, needed this, but there was no time to dwell on that when Tommy was pulling them out of the grate and standing up, and the water was gone from his, eyes, and-   
  
And there, holding Chester in the air by his arm like a doll, was Forzen.  _ Forzen.  _ The entity that had ripped off Chester’s arm like nothing, that had dragged him off and left him to  _ rot.  _ Benrey’s already frozen blood somehow found a way to get even colder, and the world stuttered and stopped for a second, fuzzing at the edges. There was the sound of static, and he couldn’t tell whether the static was in his head or coming from his breaki͠ng body. 

Benrey tried to find his words, to do something, anything to shake the sudden, paralyzing terror he felt for Chester. 

What if Forzen killed him again? 

What if he ripped off another arm? 

That- it hadn’t come  _ back.  _ His voice caught in his throat for a second before he finally managed to yell,  “Hey! Leave him alo̴n̷e!”

Both Forzen and Chester turned to look at him, Forzen with an annoyance that bled into the smugness of a schoolyard bully, and Chester with a look of pain and terror and misery that ripped him apart to see. 

Forzen dangled Chester in front of him like a stolen toy (and didn’t that burn, to see him treated like an object, like a prize to be stolen or won instead of the person he was) and  _ grinned _ a terrible, smug smile that made Benrey’s blood boil in his veins alongside the panic of Chester being held in  _ his  _ grip.    
  
“What’re  _ you _ gonna do about it?  You really think you can stop me?”    
  


He couldn’t let that stand, he had to  _ do _ something- the rage in his veins and the panicked sirens screamingscreamingscreaming in his head told him that, and something  _ snapped _ . Benrey lunged forward with claws reaching for Forzen, desperation and rage and  _ he had to save Chester, he couldn’t afford to fail _ ringing, ringing, ringing in his fuzzed and static head and then-

He.  _ Tripped _ . 

His foot caught on the ridges in the floor and went  _ through _ the ground, and Benrey found himself crashing to it like Icarus to the sea. No, no, no, he wouldn’t give up, he wouldn’t leave Chester to this  _ monster.  _ He tried to pull himself up from the floor, metal screeching and giving way in slashes across the floor, and it did. Not. Work. 

“Be-Benrey, stop!”  Tommy moved towards him, and Benrey distantly felt the scientist’s hands pulling him away, but he had eyes only for Chester and Forzen, and nerves only for the raw, defensive panic in his veins. 

Benrey  _ hated  _ the chatbot, and he only hated him more after the bastard spoke in a grating, mocking tone, the sing-song of a child if that child was impossibly tall and strong and  _ holding Chester.  _ “Having trouble with your code?”    
  
Benrey saw red, quite literally, vision painted the flaming crimson of rage, and he  _ screamed,  _ sweetvoice escaping his mouth like bullets like a gun, and the bullets missed _.  _ Bitter frustration coiled like a snake in his gut, and he allowed Tommy to pull him away.  God, he hated being so  _ powerless _ . If his code hadn’t been fucked with, he could have taken out this chump with his cheats no problem. He was a pro at taking down enemies. After all, it wasn’t like he’d had much  **else** to do. 

Tommy and Forzen shot words back and forth for a second, and Benrey paid just enough attention to gather that Darnold was responsible for what happened earlier.  _ Darnold.  _ Darnold had thrown the potion that prevented him from saving Chester, and Darnold had killed Chester before. He should have known that Darnold was responsible for th̨is̨.  Part of him knew the AI wasn’t malicious, but that didn’t matter because he’d  _ helped hurt Chester _ .    
  
Then, Benrey saw tears drip from Chester’s eyes, and heard him  _ apologize  _ to this monster, and he couldn’t let that stand, couldn’t keep staring in sullen silence at Forzen, so he struggled against Tommy’s grip again, but was unable to break it.  “Leave him alone!”

Forzen ignored him, electing instead to torment Chester some more, shaking him, screaming at him, and digging his fingers into Chester’s one remaining arm. If Forzen ripped off Chester’s other arm- the terror of that kept him paralyzed, unable to act against Forzen despite his burning rage. 

What was worse was Chester’s reaction, his desperate pleas for Forzen not to hurt them. Benrey’s heart ached. Chester didn’t _ need  _ to apologize anymore. He’d already apologized for so much already. He was going to get them out. He was going to  _ save  _ them. Chester was a good man and Benrey didn’t want him to apologize anymore.

These apologies and pleas seemed only to make Forzen angrier, like a child being told no and proceeding to throw a tantrum. That was what Forzen was, wasn’t it? Just a tantruming kid with far too much power. 

“ **STOP CARING ABOUT THEM!!** ”  Forzen demanded, shaking Chester up and down like a soda can.

“Y-You can’t ju-just expect him to stop caring,” Tommy said, his grip on Benrey loosening a bit out of what was likely sheer disbelief or confusion. “It’s no-not that easy.”

“I didn’t ask you!” Forzen snarled. 

“Baby doesn’t know how feelings work,” Benrey slurred, unable to keep himself from smirking. “Fuckin’...Fuckin’ loser. Doesn’t even get feelings.” 

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have pushed Forzen, shouldn’t have insulted him, because the next thing he knew Chester was screaming and there was a  _ dent  _ in the metal over his bicep. Forzen had literally crushed the suit inwards, sending fragments of metal into the flesh of Chester’s arm.

Forzen was saying something, some stupid taunt, but Benrey wasn’t listening. All he could focus on was that Chester was  _ hurt and he needed to get to him needed to help him _ . The second Forzen dropped Chester, due to Tommy’s shooting which also freed Benrey from his grip, Benrey scrambled over. 

“Hey...I got you, bro,” he murmured, dragging himself over. “I go̵t̵ you.” 

He tried to touch Chester’s shoulder, but in doing so he seemed to jostle the metal shards and cause Chester to scream out in pain.

“Sorry.” He pulled his hand back. “But, like, I’m...I’m here.”

“W-We need to get out of here,” Tommy said, kneeling down beside the two of them. 

“Dude...I don’t think we can move him. Not when he’s like this.” Benrey gestured to Chester’s broken form. 

Just touching his  _ shoulder  _ had made Chester scream. There was no way they could just pick him up and carry him out of there without causing him a lot of pain. Not to mention, Benrey wasn’t exactly fit for running either at the moment. 

Tommy sighed, firing off another gunshot back toward Forzen. “I kn-know...”

**“STAY AWAY FROM HIM!!”** Forzen yelled, apparently not deterred by Tommy’s shooting. “ **HE BELONGS TO** **_ME_ ** **!”** **  
**   
“He-he-he-he’s not your fucking-ing-ing toy!” 

Caught up in his own rage and frustration, Benrey tried to lunge for Forzen again. 

He shouldn’t have done that. 

Forzen slapped him away as easily as one would swat a fly, sending him crashing into the unyielding metal of the floor. Benrey had been injured in games before. He’d spent 2 years trapped in this computer, after all, and died enough times to lose every memory he’d ever had about his life outside of this place. That didn’t mean he was ever prepared for the pain, though.  And  _ this _ pain...

He hit the floor and the world went white, and he felt things inside of himself shatter and break on the unyielding metal. His mind was blank from the pain, all that he was subsumed into a whirling vortex of agony. There’s a cry of pain and the screeching of broken machinery, and staticstaticstatic, the fuzzing and breaking of his form and the feeling of  _ something  _ dripping from his lips all blended together into a cocktail of unending, miserable sensation and Benrey was dr͟ow͜ni͢n̨g in it, teetering narrowly on the edge of oblivion.  He was vaguely aware of Forzen  _ still _ talking, but it didn’t matter. It hurt so much. 

He was going to die again. Even if Forzen didn’t finish him off, this was  _ definitely _ going to kill him. What would he lose this time? Would he lose his memories of Chester? Of the other AI’s? He’d lost all his  _ other _ memories. 

He didn’t want to forget Chester. 

Then he was being lifted up, and with a snap....his neck had been broken. 

And there was nothing. 

......

He never enjoyed dying. 

First of all, it almost always  _ hurt _ , which fucking sucked. And then there was the memory loss, although it had mostly stopped once he ran out of memories to lose. 

But there was another reason Benrey hated dying.

Whenever he died he felt... something on the edge of his mind. Something that wasn’t quite him. Something that just... didn’t feel right.  He used to wonder if maybe it was the person he used to be, but that wasn’t right. That person was dead, had been dead a long time.  And this didn’t necessarily feel like a  _ person _ . 

He woke up in a completely black place, facing a shattered mirror. But his reflection was still there, staring back at him. Except it didn’t look like  _ him _ . It didn’t look like the generic NPC model he’d been using as a base, but it didn’t look like his altered model either. He couldn’t get a good look at it. It wasn’t like it mattered, though.  He’d seen it hundreds of times and had never been able to make any sense of it.  Right now he needed to wake up and find Chester.

The world in his dreams faded away quickly, disappearing even as he recognized it, and Benrey opened his eyes.    
  


He still felt like shit. God, it was always like this after he died. The wounds didn’t carry over, but it still hurt like Hell.  He found himself collapsed on the floor of a hallway he didn’t recognize. His head felt so fuzzy he could barely think.  _ This _ is why he usually had god mode on. Stupid Darnold and his potions. 

He forced himself to his feet. He had somewhere he needed to be. Someone he needed to find. He couldn’t... remember who exactly at the moment. But he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. He stumbled down the hall, leaning against the wall as he did so.  
Hopefully, this led to... wherever it was he was trying to go. He had a feeling there were probably enemies around. There were always enemies in a game.  
  
His dazed, aimless wandering through the corridors was mostly uneventful, thankfully, he was in no state to defend himself at the moment, other than hearing a loud, horrible noise at some point. It sounded almost like... A greeting? Weird.  
  
He barely even noticed when two people ran up to him, shouting his name. One of them was a tall, thin man in a propeller hat with a gun, and the other was… the most beautiful man that Benrey had ever seen. He was tall, and had green eyes Benrey could sink into- eyes that were filled with so much concern. Benrey was pretty sure he was in love with him. He knew this man. How did he know this man?   
  
“...Are we married?”   
  
The man blinked at him, looking confused and turning beet red, then smiled. “No, we’re not.” 

"Aw…" Benrey draped himself across the man like a boneless cat just awoken from a nap,  dragging the two of them to the floor.  "Why not?"    
  
“I- I- what??” 

Benrey proceeded to drape himself more across the man, and conspiratorially whispered right into his ear. Well, he thought he did, but it was really audible to everyone else in the room. "...Wanna get married right now? In, uh, wherever this is?"

He flapped an arm at the one in the hat, who was clearly trying very hard not to lose his shit laughing, and only barely succeeding. "The, uh, that guy. He could officiate." 

Benrey seemed very proud of himself for that.   
  
The man, however, looked like he was about to pass out. Or cry, or scream. One of those. Benrey couldn't really tell.

Benrey reached out to gently touch the man-  _ Chester _ , that was his name! The victory was savored for a moment, but Benrey still put his hand gently on Chester's face. 

"Nooooo, don't be upset. You're too pretty to be upset."

The other guy was DEFINITELY losing his shit now. I mean, who wouldn't?  He was witnessing true love right here. At least, Benrey was pretty sure it was true love.   
  
A flurry of little bubbles escaped Chester’s mouth,  scarlet to flush, and the man in the propeller hat opened his mouth to say something, but Chester jerked forward and put a hand over his mouth. 

Benrey mostly ignored that, in favor of batting at the bubbles like a cat. Wow, Chester was so talented. Not only was he pretty, he could make colorful orbs.  He was perfect in every way. Benrey felt like he could lie here on his lap for forever.

Benrey pawed Chester's shoulder to make him stop trying to prevent the tall man from talking, and get him to pay attention to  _ him _ instead. 

"Chesteeeeer. Chester, I love youuuuu." Pink to blue bubbles escaped his lips as he said that, and he stared at them with wide eyes. Woah, he could do the thing that Chester could do too. Pretty cool, he would say.  He stared at them for a moment, just watching them drift by and pop.  They were so pretty… 

When he stopped staring at them, Chester was kind of- frozen, like a deer in the headlights of a car, and Benrey frowned, cupping Chester's face in his hands again.

"Did you change your mind about getting married? You're so pretty."    
  
Chester’s face somehow got even redder.

“We-Well, at le-least he’s doing okay,” Tommy said weakly.

Chester let out a long drawn out groan, closing his eyes. He was so cute when he was flustered. Benrey just wanted to kiss him all over his adorable face. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. 

....Wait. 

Suddenly, everything that had happened came crashing back and oh God, oh God he’d just asked Chester to marry him when he hadn’t even heard Benrey say he loved him. Oh God, he’d just made things so awkward. 

But...Did he really regret what he’d said? It had to have come from somewhere.    
  
Underneath his embarrassment, Chester looked... happy? Maybe... Maybe telling him was the right thing to do?

“So...Uh... You doin’ anything later?” Benrey asked, deciding to just go with it. “Wanna get dinner?”   
  
“...Once this is all over?” Chester offered a shy smile. “I think I would like that.” 

Benrey couldn’t help but smile wider, his heart soaring. “Dope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading these two bonus chapters! This was, an adventure to write, to be fucking sure. We hope you enjoyed them! This was fun. Also, no promises, like absolutely no promises, but we might post other bonus chapters from different perspectives at other points in the future! It depends on what happens.


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